Hug Me
by Twilights
Summary: In a snowy day, they met again... A Seph Cloud Story after AC... He loves him, but he cannot go with him. All they could do is to give a tight hug to each other, and say goodbye...


Claim: I don't own the characters in this fic, neither does the author (az). She just borrowed them from SE's work Final Fantasy VII Actually this ficlet was originally written in Chinese, since I like it so much, I asked my friend az to let me translate it into English, so that more people can take a look at it.

Hug Me

So, this is the last parcel, Strife took a look at the back rack of Finrir...definitely it's the last one, which means when he finishes the delivery, he can go home...a hot shower and a soft bed is waiting for him...Oh, and don't forget the dinner prepared by Tife, as well as the warmest welcome from Marlene and Danzel.

He arrived the destination. Kalm town hasn't changed a lot, it remains to be the calm place in his memory...while he was still a recruit in Solider, Zack has brought him here once upon...

By the time he started to unload the goods, it began to snow, and getting heavier and heavier...

It will be dangerous if he just ride back like this...in such a heavy snow.

"You can stay here and wait until the blizzard stops." His last customer, the host of the inn invited him, "I can offer you a discount." Sounds good, at least he paid the delivery fee.

This seems to be his only choice...if he make a phone call to explain the situation to Tifa, she will agree him. Dispite the fact that, today is Marlene's birthday, he is afraid that the little girl gonna get disappointed again.

The inn looks almost the same...two years ago, he recalled his faked memory here.

He laid himself on the bed, looking at the snowflake floating out side the window...hearing the children playing on the street. Then he got up and looked through the window...the children are playing with the snow. He watched, and dived into his own memory...

When he was still a little child, living in Nibelheim, he was always looking at others playing with the snow like this, Tifa was the head of the group...once his mother asked him to join other children, but he refused. He'd like to play with them, but the request just couldn't burst out from his lips. The thought that he is different from others kept on troubling him, they will not like him to join the group... And once again, mother just drove him out of the door, perhaps she simply thought that he was to shy too join them. She even promised that she will not blame him for dirtying the clothes...Then he went out, staring the children playing from somewhere faraway. He just followed them carefully, making a snow ball himself, and the ball melted, turned to water without being thrown out or hit onto others...When the evening comes, other children stopped playing and went home, so did he... Mother asked him if he had a wonderful day, actually she knew his child was not happy though, his clothes was still so clean, except for some snowflake sticking on it...He nodded, he lied...after the dinner, he went back to his room...lying on the bed, began to imagine playing with others.

He decide to take a walk on the street before dinner, perhaps get some nice presents to compensate for Marlene's disappointment.

He steppdd out, walking along the streets...

One snowball flied toward him from somewhere, he doged it instinctly... a child shouted at him for "Sorry" or something like that, he nodded, meaning it's OK...the children went back to play, and he just walked away...

He squatted himself down, grabbing some snow and make them a ball, then threw it away...

In another snowing day, Zack used to play with him...

The training came to an end prematurely because of the heavy snow, and he was walking back to the barrack ...by then Zack stuffed a bunch of snow through his collar...he was so angry that after he got rid of the snow, he just grabbed a bunch of them and hit it at Zack...Zack ran away while trying to fight back...

They were happy, that scene is still vivid in his memory...he was happy all the way they playing with each other, unitl his snow ball hit SIR. SEPHIROTH.

They stopped immediately and he did want to make some apologize...but by the time he said "I'm sorry", Sephiroth threw a ball towards them...and, what a pity, it hitted zack, instead of him...it was always not him...

"Hey! Whatya doing?" Zack shouted and fight back...Sehpiroth dodged...and they began to fight with each other...Perhaps Zack had asked Cloud to join him, but he just standed still...and then, he turned and left, went back to his dorm alone...he didn't join them, it was just the right time for him to leave...

In the dorm, he took off the drenched clothes and started to write a letter to his mother, telling her that he had had a wonderful day.

And then he fell asleep...Zack had come to see him when he was sleeping, but left without disturbing him, and wrote him a note saying that he had to complete some mission and would be back in one week...however, he had kept him waiting for one month.

Finding nothing interesting, he got a Teddy Bear, perhaps Marlene will like it.

It was almost night when he got back to the inn, god knows how he could wonder around for such a long time... the owner asked if he wants any wine to warm up, he nodded for agreement. But he had to go back to his room and settle the Teddy Bear first.

By the time he stepped into the room, his cell phone rang... it was no Tifa's call, neither Vincent's, or some else's... this number is rare...

"Hello..."

"How are you? Cloud."

"Um...good...why are you calling today?" He entered the room and sat on the bed," I'm in Kalm, where are you?"

"Somewhere nearby...wanna me come?" The man on the other side chuckled.

"Mm...if you are not so busy..." He paused, "I'll wait for you in the bar...Seph..." Since when he had started to call his hero in nickname, it's hard to remember...

"Sure, stay there and wait for me, never wander away, see?" The tougue was like some order, but rather relaxed.

"Come as quickly as you can...I'll be waiting for you." He hanged up.

And then he went downstairs...the owner provided him some quiet seat right beside the window and recommended him a kind of wine, which contains little alcohol. He ordered it and asked for two glasses.

Now he is drinking alone, looking through the window...how much time passed...until he heard someone's voice beside him.

"Waiting for a long time?"

"No..." He looked up and saw Sephiroth standing in front of him, "not so long..." He stook up, helped Sephiroth to get rid of the snow on his coat. Sephiroth romoved the coat and put it on the chair. They both sat down, and he poured some wine in Sephiroth's glass.

"Really?" He took a look at the half-emptied bottle.

"..." He sipped the wine...it's a bit sweet, he has just realized about this fact...settled his glass, he looked at Sephiroth...the silver-haired man had tied his hair together, and his face was a bit red because of the frozen weather.

"What are you looking for?"

"Nothing..." He dipped and smiled...this meeting is precious, however, he just couldn't think of any word to say...he could be with the man, although he loves him, but his companion will never like this silver-haired man...he knows that the one who had destroyed his home town is some madman controlled by JENOVA, but not the one in front of him right now...well, anyone who knows that kind of thing will turn mad, he is just a piece of experiment sample in his father's lab...things are getting even more weird with such explanation...

"Seems that you live a good life, Cloud." He started to drink,"How about the others?"

"Um...they are OK..."The silver-haired man became more relieved when hearing this...Cloud stretched his hand, wanted to touth his face, his face must be COOL.

"And you're also OK..." He smiled, the dialogue...doesn't make any sense...perhaps they'd better just look at each other without saying anything...

"Seems like that the snow won't stop tonight."

"Tomorrow maybe..." He turned his eye toward the window...actually he is thinking, if only the snow won't stop any way...

"Sometime in the past...when Zack was still alive..." Sephiroth said," I remember once you were playing snow with him, while the snow ball hit me."

"Yeah...and then you guys started to play, while I left." Cloud uses his fingers to scrub the glass, he didn't expect Sephiroth to keep this in mind," I remember that I hit you, I was going to say sorry to you."

"I was going to fight back on you...but hit Zack accidentally." The silver-haired man grinned, "Then you ran away, I thought you gonna play with us...three will have more fun than just two."

"...but I didn't know whom to support..."

"Support the one you like...or you'll be chased by we two..." He smiled and touched Cloud's red face, " Cloud, you are so cute."

"Don't say that..." He turned his face away...in fact, he was happy though...

They kept chatting until most of the customers left...and then they went upstairs... the owner asked if Sephiroth need an extra room, but he declined...his reason was funny, he said that he didn't have any money to pay the rent. Actually he has more than enough Gils with him.

In Cloud's room, they started to kiss each other...and then fell onto that poor twin-sized bed...

"Have you ever considered to go with me, Cloud?"

"No...I can't...Seph...I..."

"I see...you can go ahead and see me when you make up your mind, I'll be always waiting for you..."

"Maybe it'll take a rather long time...maybe never..."

"I know."

They hugged, and requested each other...

"Aren't we having an 'affair'?" Cloud asked suddenly, and then he smiled and denied his saying silently.

"Are you married?"

"Nope."

"Then that doesn't count." He kissed Cloud as he heard him calling "Seph", which is really satisfactory...

The next day, they found the snow stopped already when they woke up...Tifa gave another call saying that the road has been cleaned up, Cloud could get back easily.

He hang up the call and sighed...

"I must go."

"You'd be strictly tied up if you marry her." Sephiroth teased him while lying on bed, trying to block the pillow targeted at him.

"What if I marry you? I'd be tortured to death after several nights."

"It is me who is really WORKING."

He paid the rent and stepped out of the inn...Sephiroth is waiting for him outside, and Firnir is well protected by linoleum from the snow.

"I...have to go..." He pulled the linoleum away, "we..."

"We will meet again."

"Sure..."

He turned, stepped towards Sephiroth... they hugged, tightly. They meant to kiss, but instead of did nothing...they just hugged like old friends, and then turned apart...walked toward different destinations.

-Fin-


End file.
